A Father's Faith
by RayWritesThings
Summary: Quentin Lance refuses to accept his daughter's death, leading him and her team to recruit a number of their friends with surprising results.


**Hello all! This fix-it idea was inspired by the mention in season 3 of Damien's stolen Lazarus Pit water. I have to admit, this story would likely not have been finished without a lot of encouragement from the Lauriver server, and a special thanks to Okori for giving this a read before I posted it. For anyone who would like to join the Lauriver server, just PM me for the invite link. Thanks so much for reading, and please enjoy!**

**-RayWritesThings**

**A Father's Faith**

Quentin tried not to show it, but he was crushed by the news Nyssa had given him when she'd come to offer her condolences. How could there no longer be a Lazarus Pit when he needed it most?

He didn't blame the woman. Sara had been frightening when she had first emerged from it. They'd all been so worried she would never really recover, hard as Laurel tried to reach her. Without that magician friend of Oliver's, who knew if she would be out there right now figuring out her life and how best to help people? Some people might say he was crazy to want to try to risk all of that again on his older daughter.

But that was the thing. Loving someone was a risk, a risk Laurel had always taken with the people around her. Even when it didn't pay off. Especially when. After all the risks she'd taken on him, how could he not do the same?

Without this Pit in Nanda Parbat, he just had to find another way. Their world had become filled with magic and all kinds of impossible science. In all of that, there had to be _something._

Quentin didn't know everything the others did. He may have been a resource and ally they called on when needed, but he knew there were things he was simply kept out of the loop on. But he had eyes and ears, and a mind sharp for detail. He knew asking that friend of Laurel's in Detroit wouldn't pay off; her magic didn't work that way. The guy in Central City supposedly could recover from devastating injury in record time, but that ability didn't seem to extend beyond himself or beyond the grave to his knowledge. The magician called Constantine could recall souls, but was that to living bodies only? He needed a way to heal her, to rejuvenate the body before they could expect that kind of spiritual aid. Something like the Lazarus Pit even if he'd never seen it before.

And then it hit him where he'd seen something like it.

_Darhk._ In his office, he had kept a pitcher. Quentin had seen it, and Darhk had noticed. He'd boasted it was a souvenir from Nanda Parbat, something to keep him young, as he'd put it. Hadn't Darhk been connected to the League? That was how he'd known what had happened to Sara during her resurrection. What if the water he had was the same as that Pit?

He had to get his hands on it. If nothing else, the bastard shouldn't have it anyway. The trouble was, he knew he couldn't possibly get into Damien's office, steal one of his most highly-guarded possessions and get out with it alive. At least not on his own.

It was a good thing he knew a whole team of vigilantes.

Oliver was the first one to answer his calls and agreed to meet him down in the base. Quentin paced as he waited. Over the years, they'd had their disagreements, but he was confident he could convince the younger man. And if Oliver was on board with the idea, the rest would follow. He'd be that much closer to having his girl back.

Oliver arrived, and Quentin wasted no time. "I've figured out how we can get her back. It's risky, but it's the best we got."

"If this is about the copycat—"

"It's not. This is about Laurel. I saw, in Darhk's office, he's got this water that works just like that Pit she used for Sara."

"Lazarus water," said Oliver, a spark lighting in dulled eyes. "Ra's said when Damien left the League, he took some with him."

"Yeah, well I know where he keeps it. If we can just get it we can, I don't know. There's not enough to submerge a body, but if we could get it into her system somehow—"

"That's assuming we can get past Darhk and his men," Oliver reminded him. "I still don't know how to beat him.

"Well, what about that friend of yours. Uh, Mari. Didn't she beat him last time?"

"I can't ask her for help every time," he told him. "She did me a favor already by coming in the first time."

"Then I'm calling in a favor for Laurel. She went out and helped her before. You're telling me Mari wouldn't want this lunatic taken down anyway?"

"It's not her responsibility."

"And neither is it yours. You know? It's supposed to be the police's job to bring in criminals. But we needed help, even if we couldn't admit it at first." He gave a shake of the head; still referring to himself as police. Old habits. "It's not wrong to ask for help. Better to do so before you're in over your head."

Oliver considered that silently. Then he looked up and asked, "Even if we defeat Darhk and secure the water, there's no telling if it would work for a resurrection."

"Maybe not, but I'm willing to try."

"Quentin, I just don't know if I am."

He scoffed. "You're kidding me. After all the times she stuck her neck out for you."

"That's not what this is about. If we get this wrong, we'd be bringing her back to some kind of half-life."

"Well then that friend of yours gets her soul back, right? Just like with Sara."

"He's out of contact. There's no telling when or if he gets back, and in the meantime she would be...I couldn't do that to her." He shook his head, and for the first time Quentin noticed something past his own grief; he'd assumed, because Oliver wasn't outwardly spiraling like the rest of them seemed to be, that he was coping the best of all of them. Yet he could see now that his face was screwed up like he was barely holding in a storm. "Not to her."

"What did she say to you?" The question he'd been longing to ask slipped out. Oliver's expression shuttered. Not in a way that left him looking angry, just...broken. He'd gotten what might be the last minutes with Quentin's daughter — a part of Quentin envied him for it — and those minutes seemed to have changed something in him.

Oliver shook his head, shoulders hunching. He couldn't or wouldn't share. Fine.

Quentin took a step closer. "Look, you told me once you love my family," he reminded the other man. "Well, now's your chance to prove it."

Oliver's hand curled tight into a fist, and for a wild second Quentin thought he might be about to hit him. But instead, the archer swallowed once and said, "You're right. You- you all deserve better than just words from me. She deserves better. Where was Darhk keeping his supply?"

—-

Oliver felt slightly out of his own head when he placed the call to their ally in Detroit. Quentin's plan, the hope that Laurel might not be as out of reach as they all thought, it had to go to the back of his mind if he was going to concentrate on the fight ahead.

Mari answered and he briefly explained the situation. How the idol had come back together and how Malcolm had stolen it as well as the betrayal from Andy. Laurel's death at Darhk's hand. The need to stop him again.

"I wouldn't ask another favor of you so soon, but we're...we're struggling here," he admitted, hearing the exhaustion in his own voice. None of them were doing well without Laurel; over the months, she had become the glue that had held them all together it seemed, and he wondered if that, too, was something he'd taken for granted.

"It's not a favor, Oliver," Mari said, her tone hardening into steel as she added, "That bastard is going down permanently."

He didn't tell her the rest of the plan. He didn't tell the others, either. There was still such a chance that it wouldn't work. Getting their hopes up would only distract them from defeating Darhk, and the last thing they needed was distractions when going up against him. He already felt guilty enough asking Thea to postpone her vacation with Alex, but they would need all hands on deck for this one.

Oliver knew the others were getting nervous all the same. Quentin announced they were postponing Laurel's funeral. He'd cited waiting for Sara as the reason.

"You'll be waiting a long time, then," Felicity muttered under her breath.

Oliver convinced John that the best way to do right by Laurel in the meantime was to help catch the copycat who had stolen her suit and device. Oliver was forced to unmask Evelyn Sharp in front of a crowd, denouncing her as a fraud. The media picked up the story; eyewitness accounts of the Black Canary easily confirmed she hadn't been a teenager even at the start, and Evelyn had had to make crude hem adjustments to make Laurel's longer pant legs and jacket sleeves fit her smaller frame.

She'd been taken in by social services who were treating her case as one of severe emotional and mental trauma from the loss of her parents. Her status as a minor would likely save her from jail time. Oliver sent a message to Cisco, hoping the engineer might be able to restore Laurel's costume to its original state. He excused it as sentiment to the team.

He didn't tell them he held the slimmest hope that the suit might be needed again.

By the time Mari could join them in Star, Darhk had set his sights on his next target: an ARGUS transport. Diggle was inside with Lyla and Sara to better protect their family. He and Thea were approaching the HIVE members and Darhk from behind on a motorcycle, his little sister letting go of him every so often to fire off an arrow at their opponents.

Just as he watched the truck doors open, they all heard the screech of an eagle as Vixen swooped into the fray. She grabbed Darhk by the shoulders and threw him to the ground where he went rolling. It took him some time to rise off the ground, and he did so shakily, a scrape on one side of his face.

"You and Spartan occupy the Ghosts!" Oliver ordered Thea as he stopped the bike, running to Mari's aid.

The two magic users were facing off, Darhk's usual tricks no match this time for the protection Mari got from her amulet. He wondered if her proximity to it versus Darhk not having his idol on him had something to do with it as well, but dismissed the thought as Darhk moved into the physical offensive.

Having been trained by the League, he was a threat even without his powers. Mari was barely able to get her guard up and was losing ground. But Oliver had completed that same training. He had something more he was fighting for, as well. Something greater than delusions of power and conquest.

Darhk raised a hand, but Oliver caught his arm, twisting it with a snap. Darhk gave a sharp cry and sank to one knee, breathing in deeply. "Oh, that's good. Didn't know you had it in you. Hero type and all that."

"Arrow," said Vixen, a warning note in her voice.

"I never tried to be a hero when I started all this," Oliver said, watching the man at his feet. His arm would heal, he'd go back to plotting, and they would do this all over again. It would never end, with Oliver losing more and more pieces of himself along the way. William, Laurel...even if they could get her back, would it really be the same? "Not until someone believed I could be. You killed her."

Darhk's breath quickened as he withdrew an arrow. He pushed up onto his feet, his other arm striking out—

The arrow went in under his arm, stabbing through the material of his suit. Darhk stiffened with a ragged gasp.

"You could have gone to prison. You could have served your time or broken out and simply left this place. But you didn't." Darhk's knees were giving out again, and Oliver brought him down to the ground. Then he ripped the arrow out as he stood.

"You're not going to pass on a message to anyone. But I want you to think of her in your last moments. I want you to know she wasn't just a pawn in your game of control over this city. And I want you to know that's why I'm not the hero you thought I was."

Darhk's eyes had gone wide as he hemorrhaged. There was no way of knowing if he'd even heard or understood. Oliver watched solemnly, silently, as the light left his eyes and his breath stopped coming.

When he looked back around, Mari's eyes were on the ground. "Would Laurel have wanted that?"

Oliver couldn't answer right away. His impulse was to say no; Laurel had believed in the changes he had tried to make in himself, in the light she felt he still had. Yet he could see her flashing eyes and pointed words every time they argued about Merlyn, who had hurt and threatened their loved ones time and again. Was this really so different?

"I don't know," he said finally. "I'll have to ask her."

Mari looked up sharply, her confusion plain, but Lyla was walking over to join them. Beyond her, he could see Thea and John finishing tying up the Ghosts they had managed to take down.

"Thank you all for your help," Lyla said. "If Darhk had gotten ahold of Rubicon, he could have launched a nuclear apocalypse."

"Then I take back my objections," Mari stated swiftly, as they all eyed the body of the man who had nearly taken away the world as they knew it. "We should still secure his idol to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"We'll take Captain Lance," Oliver told her. "There's something in Darhk's office he was hoping to find."

They caught the few Ghosts left to guard the place off guard with a sudden attack. Four vigilantes — as grateful as Oliver was for her help, he felt a pang in his heart every time he looked and didn't see the teammate he wanted to — with a former police captain for backup. Without their leader, they were disorganized and overwhelmed.

Mari was quick to get possession of the idol sitting inside a cabinet, but Quentin only had eyes for a pitcher.

"It's here. This is it." He lifted it down with trembling hands, but his grip was secure. The both of them peered inside to see the water that sloshed around. Oliver couldn't describe it; all he knew was that it was no normal water.

Now that it was in their possession, it felt real.

"Uh, guys?" Asked Thea. "What do we need that for?"

Oliver turned to his team — the ones that were present, though he knew Felicity was likely listening through the comms — and drew in a breath. "There's something I haven't told you."

Sure enough, there was a scoff heard through their ear pieces. _"Isn't there always?"_

Oliver grimaced.

—-

Thea was having trouble wrapping her mind around all of this. The Lazarus Pit wasn't as totally destroyed as they'd thought it was. Or at least, the water wasn't.

Was it enough? If it was, how did they get her soul back with Constantine away? If they did that, how did they get some of the Lotus to cure her bloodlust? Thea didn't want her friend to suffer they way she had for so long before she'd received the cure, but she also needed her friend back badly. They all did.

Mari shook her head as they stood in the base, Laurel's closed casket sitting on a table. "I don't see how this works. You said the last two times the person was submerged?"

"We're thinking if we feed it directly into her system," Quentin explained. He was energized, almost manic.

"But how does it get around?" Asked Thea. "I mean, don't you need a working heart to pump the blood and other stuff?"

"Very scientific," Mari remarked. Thea made a face. What, she'd barely gone to high school. "But yeah, I think she's right. You'd have to get her heart restarted first."

"There's machines or something, aren't there?" Oliver looked around at them all, and Thea hated to see him hurting. It was clear he wanted this to work, maybe needed it to. When Felicity had been injured around the holidays, he'd turned angry and vengeful. Without Laurel...it was like he was desperately searching for hope in a place she wasn't sure still existed. But if Laurel could still come back to them, if they could just figure out _how—_

"I can't believe I'm going to say this," Felicity abruptly cut in. "But Barry can restart hearts with his powers. I don't know if it'd be enough for someone who's been dead for over a week, but." She shrugged.

"If we're gonna do this, we probably need STAR Labs' help anyway," said John. "They'd have the science."

Oliver nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, we'll need to do that."

Mari tagged along. "I'm the best expert in magic you have right now. If we're doing this to a friend of mine, I want to be there in case it goes sideways," she stated firmly.

It took them another week before they could head to Central City. They needed to make sure Ruve and her daughter left town along with the remnants of HIVE. Once the woman resigned, it was safe enough to leave the city unwatched for at least a couple days.

Thea followed the group right into a central hub of STAR Laboratories without so much as a sign-in sheet. Barry and his team seemed to be in the middle of celebrating a recent victory and looked startled to see them all there.

"Oliver!" In an eye-blink, the speedster was standing in front of them all. "What's going on? We heard on the news, have they set a date for…" he trailed off as his eyes landed on the casket Mari and John carried — Mari using the strength of a gorilla to help that along. They probably did look like a procession, the way they were all standing around it. "Uh…"

"Barry, we need your help," Oliver said simply.

Team Flash was filled in on the details. Thea could see the same mix of hope and doubt on their faces that was in her own heart.

"You really think this will work?" Asked Cisco. "I mean, there's been some time."

"We're not ready to give up yet," Quentin stated. "Now are you helping us or not?"

"Of course. We told Harry, we loved — or love Laurel," Caitlin said. "I've just never overseen this kind of blend of science and magic."

"Magic doesn't exist," a dark-haired man in glasses said dismissively.

Mari gave him a look. "Oh?"

"Magic is simply science that has not been explained or explored to its fullest," the man maintained. "These chemicals in this water have restorative properties. If the properties were broken down, we'd understand them."

"We don't need to understand them. We just need Laurel back," Thea said. "Can we do that?"

"If what you say about the water is true, then yes. Though, given the time that has passed since the heart stopped pumping blood, we might want to do an additional transfusion," the man said.

"But dad," a girl with brown hair who'd remained silent until now spoke up. "Wouldn't there be a higher chance of rejection of the blood with the additional substances?"

An older man standing by Barry and looking remarkably like him nodded as well. "She has a point. It would definitely pose a risk."

"It would, if we were simply using blood of the same type. That's not what I'm suggesting," the man with glasses said. "I'm suggesting we use _her_ blood."

There was silence as Mari and the team from Star City glanced around at each other to see if they understood.

The people from Central seemed to be catching on one by one. "Oh no," Cisco said with a shake of his head. "Harry, come on. We only just got her in the pipeline."

"Sorry, who are we talking about now?" Felicity asked.

"Your friend's Earth 2 doppelganger was part of Zoom's army," Harry told them. "She was captured tonight."

Thea felt her jaw drop. Laurel was a bad guy on another Earth? That was crazy!

"Will she even agree to donate some blood?" John asked.

"We'll have to ask Black Siren. You guys don't have to come down," Barry said. "I know it'll be kind of hard to see her like this."

Oliver shook his head. "We have to be the ones to ask."

They left Laurel's casket in the cortex with Caitlin and the other scientists. Barry hit a button to open a door, letting them see a glass box of cell. Inside was Laurel — it was uncanny. If her hair were blonde, there would be no telling the difference. Except for her black leather clothes not being a match for Laurel's suit, and the way she scowled as she paced.

She froze at the sight of their group and came up to the glass.

"Ollie?"

Oliver said nothing, his mouth open slightly as he stared at the woman who looked just like their friend.

Her painted lips turned down again. "Oh. You're not my Ollie. You're from this Earth, aren't you?"

"Yes," he finally managed. "We have something to ask you. It's about your counterpart here on this Earth."

"I heard about that," Laurel's double said with a smirk. "Poor Canary met her coalmine."

Oliver flinched, and Thea couldn't blame him. "Not necessarily. We have a way to bring her back, but it requires a transfusion. Your blood is the best match to hers available."

The woman with Laurel's face scoffed. "You want me to agree to give a blood donation to a dead woman?"

"To bring her back to life, yes."

"Why?"

That brought them all up short. "You...want your counterpart on this Earth to stay dead?" Felicity questioned incredulously.

The Siren shrugged. "I don't see why she'd want to return to the living. What does she have to come back to? Zoom's told me everything, you know. Let's see...a mother who abandoned her, a sister who slept with her boyfriend. The boyfriend," she listed off, eyes flicking over Oliver as she did so. "Friends who use her for pep talks or as their personal legal aid office. It's no wonder she just gave up and died, her shoulders were probably aching from everyone crying on them all the time."

Thea's gaze was on the floor, her eyes feeling heavy with tears she didn't want to she'd in front of the others. She'd worried to herself from time to time that she was a burden to Laurel, that she'd taken advantage of her kindness and hospitality, that she wasn't giving back enough. To hear it spelled out in Laurel's own voice — dripping as it was with a bitterness Laurel had never had — was hard to face.

"Well, there's your answer," Quentin said, and Thea wasn't the only one who looked around at him in confusion. "That's why she'd want to return. To help people. Friends, family, complete strangers. It didn't matter. She was a hero, and heroes a lot of times, they're taken for granted. It's a mistake I'll never make again. But that's who my daughter was — who she'll always be." He looked Laurel's double straight in the eye. "I think you could be that, too, if someone gave you the chance."

Siren looked uncomfortable. She'd drawn in on herself and blinked a couple too many times as she looked back at Quentin. It occurred to Thea he hadn't made her list of reasons for Laurel to stay dead.

"Please," she said, standing at Quentin's side. "We just want her back. We love her, and we want her to come home."

"We do," John echoed quietly, though his voice carried.

Felicity and Mari both nodded, the former clearly choking back tears.

"That's really sweet," said Siren. Her eyes narrowed. "But I want to hear it from Mr. Green over here. You're the one asking for my blood. What's it worth to _you_ if your birdie comes flying home?"

Thea frowned. She wanted to say that of course her brother felt the same as the rest of them. But then, he hadn't actually said anything just now. And if she thought about it, he hadn't said anything when they'd all told Laurel they loved her at her hospital bedside.

But he spoke now. "Laurel...asking what she's worth, it's impossible to say. She has so much to give, to the people in her life, to the world. She should never have been taken away like this. There's nothing I wouldn't do to change that." He swallowed and said, "Because I do love her."

Thea pressed her lips together to keep from making a sound. She had to. Because she knew now why Oliver hadn't said it with the rest of them before; they could all hear how completely he meant it.

She could see Felicity knew it, too, by the way her shoulders hunched and her eyes squeezed shut. Even knowing she'd been the one to break things off, that couldn't have been easy to hear.

"Well then," Siren said, her eyes on the ground. "I guess people can change." Her gaze cut to Barry, still standing at the control panel. "You and your friends better remember this when it's time for you to decide what to do with me."

"We'll see," he replied before flicking a switch.

Gas filled the little cell and Siren reared back, only to collapse moments later.

"Knockout gas," Barry explained. "She may have agreed, but I don't trust her not to try and break out afterwards."

Thea nodded. It had still been hard to watch someone who looked so much like her friend fall. "What will happen to her?"

"It depends on when and how we stop Zoom," said Barry. "But first thing's first." He went in to get the blood for the transfusion.

Oliver turned back towards them all, his hands rubbing over his face. Thea went up and hugged him.

"Thank you." She knew how hard it was for him to open up, to be vulnerable. Thea felt it when a hand clapped her brother's shoulder. She looked up to find it was Quentin.

"We're getting her back," was all Oliver said. "We're getting our Laurel back."

—-

Mari went back upstairs while the others were still recovering from having met Laurel's doppelganger. She wanted to see what the scientists were making of the Lazarus water and begin some preparations of her own.

When she arrived, they'd moved Laurel's body to a table and inserted a number of different IV needles and various points. One even directly into her chest underneath the loose shirt she'd been put in.

"The idea, as I understand it, is to get this water through her system as quickly as possible, particularly to the heart," said a man who introduced himself as Henry Allen.

Another young woman had arrived in meantime as well. "I should tell dad to postpone the party then?"

"I think so, Iris," Henry said with a rueful smile.

"Wow, a real-life resurrection. I thought we'd seen everything," Iris said with a shake of her head.

"I've learned the best way to keep from being surprised is to expect anything," Mari remarked. She then went for her things, carefully removing and unwrapping Darhk's idol.

"What's that?" Iris asked, walking over to join her.

"The man that killed Laurel used this to power his magic. It drew on the souls of his victims. I'm hoping that when her body's brought back to life, Laurel might be drawn to her own soul. Then we'll have both parts of her back."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Mari nodded. "Expect anything."

Barry raced up ahead of everyone with an IV bag that he attached to the system they had going. "Are we ready, Caitlin?"

"Just waiting on you," Caitlin confirmed. "Harry and Jesse have theorized that if you give her heart a jolt at the same moment that the Lazarus water reaches it, it should hopefully respond and rejuvenate her."

"Right."

Mari looked back around as Oliver and the rest of his team entered the cortex, some of them with red-rimmed eyes and all looking varying degrees of downcast or hopeful. "Anything else we should prepare for?" She asked them.

John collected himself first. "We should fasten her down. The first few minutes, Thea was pretty disoriented. Sara was dangerous until Constantine got her soul back."

Cisco hurriedly moved in to add restraints. Mari had to marvel at it all, both teams and her working towards one common purpose. The things they could do together.

The man named Harry counted down on a watch at his wrist as the water and blood were fed into the IV tubes and began trickling down. "Ten seconds...five...now, Allen!"

Barry's hands sparked as he touched down on Laurel's chest. The body jolted once.

"Again!"

Thea was gripping her brother's hand tight enough Mari could see it turning chalk white. Laurel's father was using the back of a chair for support.

"One more time!"

"You can do this, son," Henry Allen encouraged him.

"Come on, Bear," Iris muttered.

The lighting was crackling in Barry's eyes this time as he pressed onto Laurel's chest.

A jolt. Then a gasp.

"My God," Mari breathed. She'd seen a lot of things in her time as a hero, but this?

Laurel's body was _alive._ Her friend began writhing against the restraints with an energy and fluidity that would have been impossible seconds before. Cisco, Harry, Jesse and Henry each held a limb down as Caitlin frantically checked over the IV's. A snarl that didn't sound quite human left Laurel's lips as the doctor fiddled with them.

"Honey!" Quentin suddenly pushed forward. "Honey, it's okay. I know you're scared, but you're safe, I promise!"

Laurel's head whipped around, seemingly searching for her father's voice. Disoriented like John had described. She was more like a wild beast, Mari thought to herself.

"Careful, Mr. Lance," Caitlin cautioned.

"No, let him," said Mari. In the corner of her eye, she watched Oliver drift closer towards their friend as well. She doubted he was even aware of himself. "It's soothing her."

Even as she said it, her senses detected a charge to the air and her hand went to her necklace, instincts kicking in. _Danger._

Laurel, in her altered state, seemed to have that heightened sense, too. Her body went rigid and lips pulled back over her teeth as a blue streak of lightning entered the room.

It impacted a scream.

Lights shattered overhead and they were all forced to duck the glass shards. There was a _thud_ as the blue lightning resolves into the form of a man and slammed against the far wall. Barry was on the unknown attacker and then Mari was seconds later with the speed of a cheetah. She followed Barry's lead in punching him out.

"Zoom. I'm putting him in the pipeline!" Barry called out into the near-darkness before vanishing with the other speedster. Only the lights out in the hall allowed them to make out dimly lit shapes.

"Ramon, we need lights!" Harry was barking.

"Got it!" His footsteps were easier for her to track than his shape.

"What the hell was that?" She was able to easily discern Quentin's voice. "What happened to Laurel? Did it go wrong?"

"That was her doppelganger's ability. The transfusion must have reacted to her latent meta gene." That she was fairly sure was Harry. "We'll have to test when she's stable. What's her status?"

She touched the Anansi Totem around her neck again to give herself a leopard's night vision. The first thing she noticed was Oliver. He'd thrown himself over Laurel's form on the table to shield her from the glass, and still had his head ducked down.

"She's still breathing," Oliver announced, slightly muffled. "She's...she's calmer."

That, Mari could see as well. Laurel's face was turned into his neck, and she was no longer fighting to get free.

The backup lights kicked on with no warning, and Mari quickly cancelled her borrowed powers. She had to blink spots out of her eyes for a few moments.

Everyone was either lying or crouched on the floor like one of the drills they put kids through for storms. Henry's hand rubbed at his neck.

"I could swear I felt fingers for a second," he muttered. "It was all so fast."

Iris was the first to move to brush some of the glass off of Oliver's shirt. "I don't think you got cut too badly."

"Thanks." He slowly leveraged himself up back to standing.

"No problem. This might be a weird time to ask, but since when did you know about Barry being the Flash?"

"Uh…" Oliver didn't seem to have anything ready to answer that question, and truthfully Mari wasn't sure why it was being asked. He was saved when Laurel made a sudden jerky movement and started snarling again.

Harry and Jesse pushed both Oliver and Iris back in order to hold Laurel down again. "Snow! Snap out of it! We need you focused," Harry commanded.

Mari noticed Caitlin, still sitting on the floor and staring at the spot where the other speedster had been. She was paler than what seemed natural. "R-right!"

"Let me bring this closer," Mari said, lifting the idol up and doing her best to find room amongst the small crowd. If Laurel reacted to it, that would give her a better idea of what needed to be done.

Her friend was fighting against the restraints, struggling toward something like Mari had predicted she would. But it wasn't towards the idol.

It was towards Oliver.

Mari's eyes narrowed. "Okay, I have to be missing something."

"What do you mean?" It was Felicity that asked.

She set aside the idol. "Oliver, come stand by me."

He did, and sure enough, Laurel's focus shifted in his direction again. They all stared.

"What does it mean?" Quentin asked.

Mari frowned, touching her totem to try and center herself as she concentrated. She thought she could detect some kind of trace on him, only she didn't see how.

Mari opened her eyes. "You didn't tell me you could channel magic."

"I can't," Oliver said with clear confusion.

"Then what are you hiding there," she said, gesturing at his torso.

With a slightly uncomfortable look, he lifted up his shirt a little. On his right side was a tattoo. A couple years ago, she would have thought nothing of it; since she'd begun studying the occult, she knew better now.

Mari hummed to herself. "That's it."

"Constantine gave it to me. He didn't say it could channel magic."

"That's probably because he never expected you to learn magic. But I think I know what's happening. You were with her when she died?"

Oliver's throat bobbed before he answered. "Yes."

"Then her spirit isn't in Darhk's idol. Somehow it's in you."

"Whoa," said Cisco at the entrance to the cortex. He'd clearly just returned from turning the generator on. "How does that work? Is he an Oliver-Laurel hybrid? Could she take him over? Can we talk to her through him?"

"You might be able to, Ramon," said Harry.

Mari looked between them. "I'm gonna need some clarification on that."

"Cisco's a metahuman," said Iris. "He used his powers to pull Barry out of the speed force. I went with him."

"I'm not sure this is the same," Mari told her. It was admittedly murky territory. As much as she drew on the spirits of animals from her ancestors' tribal lands, she had no real experience transferring a spirit from one person to another.

"Would it hurt if Cisco tried?" Asked Caitlin. Some of the color was beginning to return to her cheeks.

Mari still didn't know how Oliver had accidentally absorbed Laurel's spirit instead of Darhk, and if Cisco really could even just open a line of communication, it would help. "We can try it."

"Okay." Cisco came forward, stepping between Laurel on the table and Oliver. "I'll take one of her hands and you give me yours."

Oliver eyed it. "Then what?"

"You'll have to reach out to her," said Iris. "It's hard to describe how, but you just- you just sort of _know._ That's how it was for me when I brought Barry home."

If anything, her earnest words seemed to make him more hesitant. "I don't know if I…"

"Oliver, just do it," Felicity said, her tone practically a command. Almost everyone turned to look at her. "We've come this far, and we know you — well, I'd like to at least have my friend back after everything."

"Please," Quentin added after a slightly tense pause. "If it's gotta be you. She trusted you."

Oliver nodded, and Mari caught a glimpse of his determined look before he turned back and took Cisco's hand.

—-

Laurel didn't know where she was. Not in a scary way, but this place felt familiar. Like it resonated deep in her bones somehow, like she'd known it her whole life without ever having been here before.

She walked through the dense trees, sidestepping undergrowth and other dangers alike. She wasn't sure how she knew which patches of earth were safe and which meant trouble, but it didn't seem to bother her.

A storm was coming, had been the whole time. The clouds had gathered and the thunder boomed in the distance, but it was yet to arrive here on this island. She wasn't sure when she'd decided it was an island either, but she could hear the choppy waves on the shore behind her even louder with the storm on the way.

She paused at a sound, turning to see a cave she might have otherwise passed up. Laurel heard the sound again. Someone was inside.

It was the first she'd heard of another human being since she'd woken to this place. Laurel carefully approached the mouth of the cave, her eyes going wide.

Inside was Oliver. Not the Oliver she felt she had spoken to only just before and yet seemingly so long ago. This Oliver was younger, with shaggy hair and worn clothes. His cheeks were clean-shaven and wet with tears as he sobbed, curled in a ball.

How had she gotten here? She wasn't a speedster. She couldn't time travel, and she didn't hitch a ride on a ship like Sara was doing. However this had happened, she probably needed to go.

She shifted back but snapped a twig under her heel. Oliver looked up.

"Hello?"

His voice tugged at her heartstrings. So lonely and scared.

"Is someone out there? I can't see. It- it's too dark."

This was her Ollie. Caught on the cusp of changing; with all his innocence and all his flaws. She couldn't help herself.

Laurel entered the cave. "It's me, Ollie. I'm here."

"Laurel." He didn't seem at all surprised, and that was maybe only the latest sign that this place wasn't quite what it seemed. Was this a vision? Some kind of hallucination she was having in the hospital?

Oliver straightened up, and she saw what he'd been curled around: a small, handmade cage with a bird inside.

"What's that?" She asked walking over and sitting on the ground beside him.

"Oh." Ollie's face fell. "It's supposed to be food."

"Supposed to be?"

"This guy, he says I have to kill it first. I don't want to kill it. I'm not a killer!"

Laurel bit her lip. His desperate plea was hard to hear, knowing what she did.

And she thought he knew it, too, the more she looked into his eyes. This wasn't the Ollie from nine years ago, not really.

She wasn't sure why, but Laurel suddenly knew whatever she chose to say next was vitally important, unreal as her whole situation seemed.

"Killing a bird because you need to survive isn't wrong, Ollie. It doesn't have to make you a killer. It doesn't have to define you."

"I don't want to be in this cave anymore," he said.

"We can leave it if you want."

Oliver looked at her miserably. "I wouldn't know where to go. I don't know what's out there. What's beyond the island. What if it's just worse? What if I'm worse?"

"That's the scary thing about change. You don't know what will happen." She took his hand between both of hers. "But that change is possible, Ollie. I know it. I've seen it."

He reflected on that for a time. "Do you think...I could become the man you always wanted me to be?"

Laurel shook her head even as her lips curved in a half-smile. "That man was a fantasy. He couldn't live up to my childhood dreams any more than I can be some kind of angel for you," she said, gesturing to herself. "What you've become is someone I believe in. Someone I trust, that I _choose _to trust. You're so much more than that man and, for all the mistakes we've both made along the way, I'm proud of and happy for you." Her eyes were watering but she didn't bother to do anything about that. She was long past being ashamed of her tears. "Never doubt that."

He leaned forward, and for an absurd moment she thought he might kiss her — but instead his forehead rested against hers, his eyes closed. "I don't want to do this without you."

"You don't have to. Come on." Laurel pulled him up by his hands, leading him out of the cave. The storm had passed them by. The clouds lingered, but lighter gray and less dense. As they climbed, light filtered through some of the gaps in the cloud cover and the trees. They climbed until they reached a high peak, marked by a pile of stones.

"My father," said Ollie, and his voice was low like the way she was used to him speaking after all these years. "I buried him here."

Laurel reached out and cupped his cheek. "I'm sorry you had to do that alone."

For once, he didn't brush off the concern, the way he did when he felt he needed to shoulder all his own burdens plus a whole city's worth. Instead he stepped forward, hugging her to him. One of his hands braced the back of her head while the other wound tight around her waist. It was the kind of embrace she'd long missed.

Then he drew in a breath and said the words that nearly shattered her. "I wish I knew how to love you better."

Laurel's grip shifted to his shoulder blades, holding tight. Her eyes squeezed shut. "It's okay."

"If I could have another chance—"

"Ollie, it's _okay._" She pulled back, not quite out of his hold because he wouldn't let her, but enough to see his face. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

His face crumpled.

"Laurel!"

She blinked and looked around. His mouth hadn't moved but she'd _heard_ Oliver's voice—

Above them, the sky had turned a strange blue with constant ripples. In the middle of it all somehow stood Oliver. Short-haired and stubbled and tired. World-weary and so well-meaning. Still trying to change.

He reached a hand out. "Come with me, Laurel. Please, trust me."

The younger Ollie had shrunk back in response to his double appearing, but she looked back to him. "I promise, you're never really alone. Even if it seems like I'm gone, I will always be here." She laid a hand over her chest. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"Laurel!" Oliver shouted again. Stern, too. This was her Oliver.

Without a second thought, she took a run and jump off the cliff's peak, her hand catching his and then another's with her other hand—

Laurel shot up from a table, her hands grasped firmly by Oliver and Cisco and her heart hammering like she had just run a marathon. Her arms and legs were strapped down and she felt a bone-deep tiredness.

"What just happened?"

"Honey!"

"Dad?"

He was breaking through the crowd — and the more Laurel looked the more it seemed like a crowd, most faces she knew but some she couldn't recognize — and wrapping her in a hug. She felt the buckles on her arms come off allowing her to return it.

"Oh, my girl," her dad kept saying into her shoulder. She could feel tears leaking into the shirt she couldn't remember dressing in. "I knew you'd come back to us, I just knew you would."

"Dad, what's — where even are we?"

"Welcome to STAR Labs," Cisco told her with a big smile and teary eyes. Laurel's eyebrows lifted; as many times as she'd spoken to her engineer friend and worked with his teammates, she'd never been to their base of operations.

Pinpricks of slight pain were starting to register, and with a start she noticed the number of IV's poking into her. "These aren't—"

"None of them are painkillers," Thea assured her, and Laurel was very glad to see her friend had made it to her side. She was less glad to see the girl she thought of as a little sister also on the verge of tears. "Can we get these taken out so I can hug her?"

"Of course," Caitlin agreed softly. She was gazing at Laurel with something like wonder. "This is fascinating, really. And of course, we'll need to run that bloodwork to test for the gene right away but—" and here she clutched at Laurel's arm after removing to IVs. "This is amazing! I can't believe it worked!"

"It was pretty touch and go there," Mari spoke up from one side of the room. Laurel was still trying to process how they'd all moved from Star to Central and gathered several of their friends to really understand what they were alluding to.

Caitlin and a young girl she didn't know were each removing the IVs. The one inserted into her chest hurt the worst coming out, and she probably crushed her dad and Thea's hands while it was removed.

"What exactly, um—" Laurel started to ask, her eyes searching over various people's heads for where Oliver had gone.

But a whoosh of air and crackle of lightning announced Barry's arrival.

"Did the pipeline work?" A woman asked. She came over to stand by him as she did so.

"Yeah. I wanted to know his plan, so I- I talked to him." Barry turned to an older man with a striking resemblance. "He was after you, dad. He was gonna— I can't believe I almost lost you."

Father and son embraced, and Laurel averted her eyes from what was obviously a private moment. Except that in the next instant, Barry was suddenly hugging her.

"Thank you, thank you _so much—_"

"Uh—"

"I mean I have no idea _how_ you did it, but you saved my father. I'm so glad you're alive."

"Yeah, how is that a thing exactly?" She finally managed to get the full question in. Everyone thankfully quieted down a little.

"Well, um, you had a complication at the hospital and they- they lost you, honey," her father started to explain. Laurel nodded; that made sense. "So I started looking at ways to, you know, to get you back."

"Right," Laurel agreed with only a touch of irony. It was just their lives now that death was only a temporary setback, wasn't it? She was too emotionally drained from everything that had happened between her and Oliver — both at the hospital and in that representation of what must have been Lian Yu — to really feel much shock over all this.

"Nyssa, she said the Pit was gone. But Darhk had some of the water. He'd taken it for himself years ago. So we took him on."

Laurel quickly cast her gaze around the room. She'd seen her father, Thea and Oliver already — there was John and Felicity. She sagged in relief. "No one else was hurt?"

"Only Darhk," said Mari. "He's dead."

"Oh." She felt nothing really about that. It certainly wasn't anything she would lose sleep over, at any rate. Darhk had been an evil hanging over her family for too long for her to care that he wouldn't be facing legal justice. He'd had his chance.

"So with him gone, we got a hold of the water he had and went to these people for help," her dad finished explaining.

A man in glasses stepped in to continue. "This mix of medical and experimental science along with Ramon's ability allowing your partner to bring your consciousness back to your own body had a significant chance of failure and required a very specific set of circumstances to work out in your favor. There also appear to be side effects. I would not recommend anyone try it again in the near future." He fixed the room with narrowed eyes for a long moment.

Okay, so she'd been dead. And they'd brought her back with Darhk's stolen water. There was poetic justice in that, she could acknowledge. There was one thing she still wasn't clear on.

"I wasn't...when we went to get Sara's, she was in a place, almost like Nanda Parbat? And she was trapped. That wasn't what it was like for me."

"It could just be the different representations of your souls. If I had to guess, your sister's soul was truly lost when she was killed," Mari said. "It's amazing that you were even able to recover it. Your soul was supposed to be absorbed by Darhk's idol like all his other victims, but…" she trailed off.

"Ollie was hanging onto it for safekeeping," Thea supplied with a cheeky grin.

"What?" Laurel finally spotted him; he'd ended up near the back of the group, half-sitting on the edge of a table with a hand pressed over his mouth.

He took it away to answer, "It was an accident."

"A lucky one," Mari agreed. "I'd like to talk to this John Constantine myself about it, if he's available."

"Trust me, he'll make himself available for you," Felicity remarked, and Laurel had to fight a smile off her face. Then it really did fall when Felicity added, "So, if you were in Oliver — in the tattoo! I meant the tattoo. I mean...what was it, uh, like?"

It occurred to Laurel that if she'd been on Lian Yu and seen another Oliver, that hadn't been a representation of her soul at all. It had been his. She met his eyes and said, "Actually, I don't really remember much. It's kind of slipping away from me."

His eyes closed, relief plain on his face that fortunately no one else saw.

"You're probably exhausted," her dad said from his perch on the side of her bed. "Everything that happened. You need your rest, honey."

Someone's phone rang, and the woman standing beside Barry gave a start before answering it. "Dad? Yeah, we got a little held up. Well, it's Bear. Don't you expect him to be late by now?" She sent a teasing look back at the speedster before starting to usher the various members of Team Flash who weren't doctors out of the room. Mari followed them after giving her a brief hug. John was next, though he stopped at her bedside to squeeze her hand and smile at her with watery eyes. Laurel returned it. Felicity approached with a hug she gladly returned, then followed John out the door.

Oliver finally walked up to join Thea and her dad at her bedside. He leaned in and brushed his lips against her cheek, a whispered, "Thank you," in her ear.

Laurel's hands shook a little, but she managed a smile. What she had seen and learned about him in her time there was something she would keep private as long as he wished. Even if it was his loved ones asking, it had to be Oliver's choice to share that part of himself.

He lingered, tucking a bit of her hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. His gaze left her feeling warm all over.

"We're ready to move you to a cot, Laurel," Barry's father said gently, breaking the moment. Laurel ducked her head and allowed him and her own father to help her over to the medical cot. Her arms and legs worked fine, even if they felt a little stiff. Probably something that would heal with time.

After she slept, they had a lot to address. For one thing, she'd been resurrected as a metahuman.

"The blood transfusion from your doppelganger must have activated your dormant meta gene. We'd never tested for that sort of thing before," Caitlin explained to her. "It's honestly a fascinating discovery."

"And she's going to be sent back to Earth 2 for a trial, right?" Laurel checked. She really didn't like the look of those tiny cells from what she'd been shown on the security footage.

"We'll have to work out a way to transport her without risk of her breaking out, but yes. Her and the other metas from Earth 2 that we captured," Barry promised.

She and her dad stopped by her mother's house before they all got ready to leave Central, and she wasn't sure she remembered the last time her mom was so emotional over seeing her.

"I'm the luckiest mother in the world," she declared to them both. "My daughters always come back to me."

"We always try, mom."

With some edits to the medical records by Felicity, they created a cover story; she had been near death and had been transferred to an elite, private hospital where they had stabilized her and kept her for observation over the last month. It likely wouldn't stop her from being bombarded by the press upon their return, but it would likely hold until some other bit of news distracted everyone again.

Laurel used the last couple of days of their stay in Central City to observe the changes in her friends, the old ones as opposed to the new ones she was making from Team Flash. It was hard to imagine that so much could have changed in so little time, but it had seemingly changed all the same. The biggest one was that they all seemed very aware of her presence and took to hugging her quite often. Laurel could only assume that would calm down once the reality of her being back had really settled in.

Stranger was the distance that seemed to remain between Oliver and Felicity. She knew Felicity was likely still upset for the same reasons she had broken things off with him, but Oliver seemed to have completely accepted this. They treated each other cordially the few times they directly interacted, and there weren't the hints of pain in his eyes that had been there before. If anything, he seemed totally at peace.

He also seemed to find any excuse to be around her. Sitting by her whenever they took meals, watching her practice her new powers out at the abandoned airfield and providing words of encouragement. He seemed committed to embodying that hope she'd once told him he represented to the people of their city.

Oliver's new outlook on life perhaps best expressed itself when he received a call from the City Council. "They want me to fill in as mayor," he told them all once he got off the phone.

"What?"

"Really?"

"Yes. They need someone for the interim since Ruve left. I- I got the job." A smile was growing on his face.

"Oliver, that's wonderful," Laurel said, intending to just give his shoulder a squeeze. Oliver seized her around the waist and spun her around in a hug, and if she hadn't been practicing her control her yelp of surprise might have shattered a window. When he set her down, she patted his shoulders and stepped back a good foot, sure she had to be blushing.

What was going on with him?

The night before they left, she gathered the courage to ask. Laurel found him up on the roof of STAR Labs, seemingly enjoying the spring air. "Hey."

"Hey," he greeted her back, opening up his stance as a silent indicator she was welcome to join him.

"I don't want to seem like I'm spoiling a good thing, but I can't help noticing you've been a little different lately," she observed.

He chuckled, looking down at the ground. "Yeah, I don't know. Something about bringing you back, ever since then, I just…" Oliver shrugged. "Things seem better. Or maybe I just feel like they do. Watching us all come together to do this, to have you back, maybe it just finally sunk in, you know? That I'm not alone and I haven't been."

Laurel nodded, absorbing that.

"It was like, Cisco used his powers to let me get to you, and something just changed. I feel...lighter, like there's this weight that's been taken off my chest. I don't even know how or why."

"Oh," said Laurel, something clicking in that instant.

He looked at her. "What?"

"I think I, um, maybe did something by accident. I was...that was your soul, where I was, wasn't it? And I found you. Or a you."

"The representation of me," Oliver agreed. "Go on?"

"Right. Well, we talked. And I- I wasn't trying to- to change your very _being,_ Ollie. I swear," she said, holding up both hands. "But I promised you that you weren't going to have to keep doing things alone, and I...was that wrong?"

He stared at her for a long moment, incredulous. "If it was, I'm not sure I agree. I think maybe I've needed that. All this time I've wanted to, to let someone in and to believe you and the others when you try to reach me, but...there was always this wall. It was me on an island, and you all on the other side of an ocean. But you came and met me there. I'm...I'm grateful, Laurel."

She sagged in relief. "This is crazy, isn't it?"

"Maybe. But our lives have been that way for a while now. We should take the good with the bad."

"I've broken you. You would've never said that before," she maintained with a shake of the head. He snorted, and she followed suit. Then they were both laughing on the roof. She leaned on him and his arms went around her, the both of them trembling in this strange new embrace.

His laughter slowly subsided. "I'm always going to be grateful for you, Dinah Laurel Lance."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "That goes for you, too, Oliver Jonas Queen."

They stayed like that until her father poked his head up from the roof access door, claiming she needed to get some sleep like she was still a teenager living in his house or something. Laurel didn't really mind; wherever this was going with Oliver needed time.

Her dad insisted on helping her to put her things back in order once they returned to Starling — apparently he had started packing a bag sometime in the last month of all her essentials and they needed put away. Thea stepped out to pick up some Big Belly Burger for the three of them, so Laurel was surprised when there came a knock on the door.

She was even more surprised when she checked the peephole, though she immediately threw the door open. "Nyssa!"

Her friend's smile was tinged with something like a scolding, as it often was. "I see my assumption was correct. Your family holds little regard for the dangers of the Pit as always."

"Uh…"

"Who's that?" Her father asked, stopping in the hallway at the sight of Nyssa. "Oh. Sorry, uh, about not saying. Wasn't sure how to contact you."

"I'm sure." Nyssa reached into her pocket and withdrew a familiar looking vial. "Luckily, I made my own observations and prepared accordingly."

"Is that…?" Laurel started to ask.

"More of the Lotus. I will admit, it was not easy to come by, and I have been asked to help the Crescent Order in exchange for it. This should be enough to cure you of the effects of the Pit's waters."

"But you- you shouldn't have put yourself in debt just for me," Laurel argued. She'd been worried about when the effects of the Lazarus Pit might assert themselves — she'd yet to go out in the field, so it hadn't exactly been tested yet — but to know that Nyssa would do that for her was almost too much.

"Thank you," her father intoned solemnly.

"I told you I would do anything for your daughter, did I not? It is thanks to your fortitude, and perhaps stubbornness, that I am able to uphold that promise."

"Yeah, well anything you need from us, you never hesitate to ask, alright?" Her dad said. "You're as good as family, far as I'm concerned."

Nyssa blinked, her careful mask slipping for just an instant so that Laurel got a glimpse of the shock and happiness that statement caused. "I am honored," her friend managed in her dignified way at last. Her gaze softened again, intentionally, as she looked at Laurel. "And I am glad to know you are back in the world, Laurel."

"Me too." She reached out and hugged Nyssa. "Thank you so much."

"I am happy to do my part for the Crescent Order," Nyssa told her after they broke apart. "Especially with the Magician gathering the remnants of the League to him, it is my responsibility to see their efforts stopped. That I was able to help a friend as well only makes this clearer to me. But I must take my leave and resume my duties."

"We'll see you again?" She asked as Nyssa turned for the door.

Her friend looked back. "You may yet." She winked and left down the hallway.

"Well, that went better than I was expecting," her dad remarked. "Best for you to take that right away, honey."

"Mm-hm." But Laurel tucked the vial away for the moment in order to turn and hug her father. "Thank you for not giving up on me, Daddy."

"Well, how could I?" He asked, returning her hug. "You never gave up on me."

There was still plenty up in the air, for both herself and her friends and family. But if she could borrow some of that hope she'd known Oliver always held inside, Laurel had a feeling they could handle it together.


End file.
